Friday, January 04, 2008

The reaction to the Iowa caucus you've all been waiting for!

Last night I watched some of the CNN coverage of the Iowa caucus (which, by the way, is my new favorite word. Caucus caucus caucus!), and, despite yesterday's post, I could not help but get a little bit excited for Obama. I prefer Hillary Clinton, just because of the experience she has, but it was still nice to have this sense of victory for the Democrats. I was self-aware enough last night to think, "Well, I was not excited about this all day because I'm not in Iowa and there's nothing I can do about it. But now that the results are here, it's different."

This morning, however, I'm back to my cynical, "apathetic" self. Talking heads across the country have lauded this as a "historic" day because Iowa is ninety-eight percent white and Obama had such a strong showing regardless. It's like, "Hooray! White people are not racist anymore! Finally, the last fifty years of hard work has come to fruition!" Of course, only Democrats voted in that primary (as well as a few Independents), and generally, they're not racist. So yes, the liberal whites in Iowa like the black guy slightly more than John Edwards, who looks and sounds like every other Southern liberal politician (only this time with a dying wife), and the wife of a former president. We've really come a long way, baby.

I was talking to Adam this morning online, and trying to explain to him my thought process here, which also allowed me to figure it out for myself, as well. I've said this before, but basically, I'm just not as politically motivated as I was four years ago. I mean, yeah, I have a few beliefs that I think are important. I think everyone should be allowed to get married, have equal rights, etc. I think abortion should be legal (despite my general dislike for the practice - which is not my decision, ultimately, anyway). I think the death penalty should not be legal, not because I'm not for capital punishment, but because I think it's a flawed system with too many mixups and until we know with absolute certainty that everyone who has been put to death is guilty, we shouldn't be killing anyone.

But if we have an extreme regime change, will anything be different? There's a checks and balances system in place: as long as there are conservative voters, there will be conservatives in power. And likewise for the liberals. It's very rare that, as fickle the average American is, anyone's mindset is going to change in the next four years. So, am I excited that Obama is the front-runner for the election? Sure, because it's becoming more likely that he could be electable. But do I think he's better or any different than Clinton and Edwards? Not really - I think he can has a younger demographic, which is just as important because if he can get a twenty-something asshole pothead to add a vote for the Democrats, I'm all for it. But do I think that, if he's elected, America will be different in 2012? The answer is nope.

But seriously, let's do all we can to keep this out of the White House:

10 comments:

Like i said earlier, it seems like you think that things can never get better, only worse. You wouldn't say that things are the same now as they were in 2004, would you? The government can spy on anyone it wants, habeas corpus has been effectively suspended and we torture people now. If some one comes in and reverses this, i'd say things would be better in 2012. Hell, if all they did was reintroduced the concept of competency in government, i'd say things were better. Your view of the world doesn't sound like cynicism, it sounds like an extreme form of pessimism that would keep me from ever getting out of bed.

The government could spy on anyone before the Patriot Act. And we tortured people before the Patriot Act. I think it's naive to think these things did not exist. The only difference now is that the Patriot Act exists, and those sorts of things aren't as secret as they were before. I don't think repealing it will change much. It may change how the government spies and tortures, but I don't think it'll get rid of it altogether.